Dude, this has been the way it is with every car I have dealt with. It is nothing new with the MINI.

Your comments in this thread have been directed at a specific vendor and the sad thing is that you have no dog in the fight.

Lastly, you do complain when you get picked on or do I need to post a link to the thread? Something about "you don't have to be a wise-***" etc...

Bottom line is that both of you are WAY over the top on this...

 

7 = Stock!

 

It would be interesting to know (a) how many USS's have been sold, and (b) how many have had install problems. Everyone who I know personally (8 or so) who have tried it have had no problems - or have made minor adjustments and then have had no problems - and are very satisfied with the product. I've seen a handful of recurring gripes from a handful of repeat gripers online - but again don't know any of these folks personally. So, in my circle of friends, M7 is batting 1000 with this product... That's a better track record than most products I'm aware of...

I've also been in a variety of customer facing and customer serving businesses for the last 30 years - and while rule number one is you need to please the customer, an unfortunate truth is that there are some customers (or potential customers) who cannot be pleased. We usually "settle" for 95-98% customer sat in our customer sat surveys - cause when dealing with people with personalities and anything more complex than cotton ball as your product (or service), "stuff happens", and "attitudes happen"....

I've fired a few customers. And a few customers have fired me. But the vast majority are very happy...

 

The thread has been about a couple of vendors in particular, none of which I even mentioned. My posts have been about any vendor. And, if you want to copy the post you mention, go ahead. In that thread, I was directly attacked because I mentioned something the attacker didn't know existed on the MINI. And I am sure the same thing happens with products for other cars. Even more reason not to accept it.

 

The thread is titled M7 Under Strut System....

Whatever dude, you clearly don't get it. Modding a car comes with some tests and trials and some products will have issues and some won't. Who cares? That is part of the fun in doing what we do. If you want to just strap parts on, I suggest you buy a box of Leggos as you will be less likely to run into problems. Lastly, you have a 2007 so you are WAAAY out in right field as it doesn't even fit your model!

 

Obviously, you are the one that doesn't get my point. So, as you said, whatever.....

 

 

I have seen this same problem arise from various products from various vendors for various cars repeatedly over the last 20 years of modding and racing cars.

Sometimes the vendor invests the time to fully R&D the products. Sometimes they figure its close enough and launch the product. Very few vendors actually tell the public what products the product won't work with once its been reported, which I think is total BS but I'm sure helps their bottom line.

I think the gripes expressed on here are reasonably valid. Modding a car doesn't mean you have to be a fabricator to make the "mod" work. It should bolt on or not bolt on as advertised by the manufacturer given the information available to them.

Not that I'm a Dinan fan but they at least go through the trouble to make sure all their parts works together well.

 

Too many posts about posts . . . not enough posts about the USS. It is pretty simple to understand that matching mods is the responsibility of the car owner, not the vendor. So, should we all handle that responsibilty, how is the USS doing in its delivery of stiffer and more fun car? Too hard to find any previous posts which address this instead of cat scratch fever!

 

You know, all bitching aside, I still like it. For me, I no longer feel as if it's an issue of the car being what's keeping me from going faster through turns, but something more like the run-flats. I'm slow to push it -- I'll be honest, with the USS on, the car is clearly more capable than me. It feels ready to do anything I ask of it, not matter how insane that request might be. It's a great feeling, but a bit scary -- it'll take some getting use to.

We're heading off to the Black Forest this weekend, and I think there's at least one other USS-blessed car going. I'm half tempted to stack the deck and put the USS cars up front, to see how much we can walk away from the other cars without really trying. The roads we'll be hitting a windy and bendy and curvy in the best possible ways, and go on forever. And it's a route I've driven a few times before -- maybe 4 -- so I think it'll be a good chance to see and feel the difference.

And, for the record, yes, I had a problem with my install. One insert stripped. I did not think I can over torqued it, but maybe I did. There was a spare insert, but no spare washer. A spare washer would have been nice -- but I managed. And yes, with my OEM exhaust, I read up a bunch on compatability before I ordered mine. I had faith that it would - and knew I would get help if it didn't, or, worse case, that I'd return it.

 

Glad you like it! I'll be expecting a full report on that run.

 

Sweet -- mine's in the mail, and will be installed this weekend. . . more to follow.

 

eager2own,

Just be sure not to overtorque with the pneumatic. Go light, and hit it more if you really need it. Overtorqueing really sucks -- I had to drill mine out, which was annoying and my own damn fault.

 

I love it. Makes the car so much more responsive! Very happy with it but then again I have the stock exhaust.
The only problem I had was the damn drill bit M7 sent was like 10 feet long. Even with the front wheels on ramps and the backs on fully extended jackstands, I could not get my drill with said drill bit installed, to vertical. I swear you could use that bit to drill to the center of the earth. I would recommend it for the next chunnel project.
Solutions: use a lift (much easier) or get a shorter bit before crawling under your MINI. Me I just started the hole at an angle then once through straightened it up. I had to unchuck the bit to get it back out though.

 

Why does this sound familiar?

 

Because loesches was there.

I could have said, "eager2own, be sure to have an adult around to supervise, if loesches shows up to 'help."

 

Ditto that - I actually did mine by hand and had no problems. I like impact drivers for loosening things, but not usually for tightening them.

But some people...

 

I have a very compact air drill - and did it on four jack stands, fully extended. But otherwise, I would have had the same problem...

 

What, that doesn't go there? Randy -- help me out. That's good for another 5 HP, right?

 

I was waiting for that photo to get sucked into this thread.

 

I'm here to serve.

 

Rather than moaning about fitment problems with the USS, one could, of course, buy the OMP lower frame brace instead, for 1/3 the price and 90% of the benefit...

 

Post a link and maybe someone will.

 

I have the USS now and previously the OMP lower brace. On my cabrio, the OMP gave nowhere near the benefit of the USS.

 

AND TO QUOTE SRTECH FROM CUSTOM MINI SHOP
- "EVERY MOD REQUIRES A MOD"